BaseMTG: Magic: The Gathering Guides, Deck Builds and Set Reviews

Precon

A preconstructed deck sold ready to play, most commonly Commander decks released alongside sets: five Foundations Commander decks came out with Reality Fracture on October 2, 2026. Players often upgrade precons with better cards.

Genre

Mana Curve

The distribution of a deck's cards by mana cost, usually visualized as a bar chart from 1 mana up to 6+. A smooth curve weighted toward cheap spells lets a deck reliably do something on every turn instead of flooding out on expensive cards.

Mechanics

The Stack

The last-in-first-out zone where spells and abilities wait to resolve. Because the stack resolves top-down, the most recently cast spell or activated ability always resolves first, which is why responses can 'fizzle' or change the outcome of something already on the stack.

Mechanics

Commander (EDH)

A singleton, 100-card multiplayer format built around one legendary creature (or planeswalker) that defines the deck's color identity and sits in a dedicated 'command zone.' The most-played way to enjoy Magic casually as of 2026, and the main format Wizards designs precon products around.

Genre

cEDH (Competitive Commander)

Competitive Elder Dragon Highlander: an optimized, high-power subset of the Commander format built around fast, resilient combos and efficient interaction, played with the explicit goal of winning rather than casual multiplayer fun. The Commander Format Panel defines cEDH within its Bracket System.

Genre

Standard

The rotating constructed format that only allows cards from a defined recent window of sets (roughly the last two to three years), refreshed as new sets enter and older ones rotate out. The primary format Wizards designs new Standard-legal sets to support. A main deck needs a minimum of 60 cards and may use a sideboard of up to 15 cards. Once per year, after the first premier set Prerelease of the year, the six oldest sets in Standard rotate out.

Genre